July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay
said he wants to raise his stake in Australia’s Echo
Entertainment Group Ltd., and invest in Japan and Macau casinos
if licenses become available.

Genting Hong Kong Ltd., one of the Asian gaming companies
Lim controls, has applied to local regulators to increase its
holding in the operator of Sydney’s only casino to above 10
percent and is now waiting for a decision, the executive said in
an interview yesterday in Kuala Lumpur. Echo shares rose the
most in six weeks.

“We are just patiently waiting” for regulators in New
South Wales and Queensland states to make a decision, said Lim,
Malaysia’s third-richest man according to the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index. “My guess is it will go on for a while.”

The Genting group of companies has been expanding abroad,
from the Bahamas to Manila, amid restrictions on gaming back
home in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where it operates the
country’s only casino on a hilltop. Gambling is forbidden for
Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation as it is considered
unethical under Islam.

Genting Malaysia Bhd., one of Lim’s five listed companies,
will spend at least 3 billion ringgit ($937 million) over five
years to upgrade the local resort, the 61-year-old Harvard
University-educated businessman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur
yesterday. It will add 1,300 hotel rooms and spend 400 million
ringgit transforming its theme park after signing a licensing
agreement with Fox, he said.

Macau Casinos

Genting and Echo are Asia’s largest casino companies by
sales that lack exposure to Macau, the world’s biggest gambling
destination. Genting Hong Kong, a cruise ship company controlled
by Lim, assembled a 6.6 percent stake in Brisbane-based Echo
last year soon after billionaire James Packer’s Crown Ltd.
bought 10 percent of the company.

Genting would “love” to operate in Macau “but the door’s
closed,” Lim said. “When it next opens, we would be the first
one knocking on that door and try our luck.”

Crown, which has a stake in Macau’s City of Dreams resort
thanks to a 34 percent share in Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd.,
was allowed to breach the 10 percent cap on its stake in Echo in
May. Packer has since sold Crown’s stake and won approval from
New South Wales state to develop a rival casino at Sydney’s
Barangaroo development site.

Competing Casino

Lim said he hadn’t decided how many Echo shares Genting
would like to own. Genting Hong Kong’s application to the
Australian regulators last October was for a stake of as much as
25 percent. Companies taking more than a 20 percent share of
listed businesses must offer to take over the whole company
under Australian rules.

“We have not formed any views yet, especially now that Mr
Packer has sold his shares for the reason that he is working on
a competing casino,” Lim said. “We would cross that bridge
after we’ve got our license.”

Lim said the Echo investment was done through the Hong Kong
company after Genting Singapore Plc’s board said it wasn’t
interested. It was originally seen as a portfolio investment, he
said.

“This is the first time since Crown won the Sydney bid
that Genting has come out and confirmed that they are still
interested in increasing their stake,” Lafitani Sotiriou, a
Melbourne-based analyst at Bell Potter Securities Ltd., said by
phone yesterday.

Fox Films

In Malaysia, the revamped attraction will be Fox’s first
fully-fledged movie theme park, Jeffrey Godsick, president of
Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, said yesterday. “There
is nothing specific beyond this first project, but this is the
start of a relationship,” he said.

The redeveloped park is slated to reopen in 2016 and will
feature brands from Fox films including the Ice Age, Rio, Alien
and Night at the Museum in a bid to attract more visitors. It
will cover 25 acres and feature more than 25 rides and
attractions, the company said.

“This landmark development is our first response to the
growing demand for theme parks with a cinematic nature,” said
Lim. “We have a global footprint, so there are plenty of
opportunities for future collaboration.”

Japan Gambling

“With a new and stronger government in place, I think
their focus would be to drive the Japanese economy,” he said.
“Tourism certainly must be one of the factors that the
government will be looking at.”

Genting Malaysia opened a 750-acre beach front resort on
the Bimini islands in the Bahamas this month as part of its
expansion in the Americas. The new destination comprising villas,
restaurants, a fisherman’s village and gaming facilities, will
be connected to Miami via twice-daily cruise ship services.

It has opened a casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack in New
York in October and agreed to buy Boyd Gaming Corp’s unfinished
Echelon resort in Las Vegas.

In the U.S., the group is waiting to see if Florida will
pass laws allowing Genting to open casino in Miami where it
purchased a downtown building in 2011. In the meantime, the site
will be developed in phases, Lim said.

The billionaire said he wasn’t concerned about a decline in
casino takings in Singapore, where it is one of two gaming
license holders, and planned no significant change in strategy
to recoup its investment.

“I’m certainly not worried,” Lim said. “The economy
around Asia is still pretty upbeat. There are very positive
signs in the U.S. that it’s coming back.

“Europe is a bit slow, but all that growing activity
around the world would certainly benefit Asia.”